The previous post Run Ubuntu in QEMU on macOS (Apple Silicon) instructed us how to set QEMU networking up by vde_vmnet. However, the vde_vmnet was deprecated. This post is a guide to set QEMU networking up by the successor socket_vmnet.

Prerequisite

  1. ubuntu-24.04-live-server-arm64.iso
  2. QEMU >= 9.0
  3. socket_vmnet >= 1.1.4
  4. macOS >= Sonoma (Apple Silicon)

Preparation

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# Download the Ubuntu live cd from the official website.
# https://ubuntu.com/download/server/arm

# Install QEMU by Homebrew.
brew install qemu

# Install socket_vmnet.
brew install socket_vmnet

# Install the launchd service
brew tap homebrew/services
# sudo is necessary for the next line
sudo brew services start socket_vmnet

# Export the environment variable
export PATH="$(brew --prefix)/opt/socket_vmnet/bin:${PATH}"

Test

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ping 192.168.105.1

If the test is failed, try to restart the service by the following command.

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sudo brew services restart socket_vmnet

Install Ubuntu

  1. Download QEMU EFI.

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    curl -L https://releases.linaro.org/components/kernel/uefi-linaro/latest/release/qemu64/QEMU_EFI.fd -o QEMU_EFI.fd

  2. Create an image.

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    qemu-img create -f raw -o preallocation=full ubuntu.img 40G

  3. Boot QEMU to install Ubuntu.

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    socket_vmnet_client "$(brew --prefix)/var/run/socket_vmnet" \
    qemu-system-aarch64 \
        -machine virt,accel=hvf \
        -cpu host \
        -smp 8 \
        -m 8G \
        -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=net0 -netdev socket,id=net0,fd=3 \
        -drive if=virtio,format=raw,file=./ubuntu.img \
        -cdrom <path/to/ubuntu iso> \
        -nographic \
        -bios QEMU_EFI.fd

Boot Ubuntu in QEMU

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socket_vmnet_client "$(brew --prefix)/var/run/socket_vmnet" \
    qemu-system-aarch64 \
        -machine virt,accel=hvf \
        -cpu host \
        -smp 8 \
        -m 8G \
        -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=net0 -netdev socket,id=net0,fd=3 \
        -drive if=virtio,format=raw,file=./ubuntu.img \
        -nographic \
        -bios QEMU_EFI.fd

Log into the server by SSH

  1. Get the name of the network device.

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    $ ip link

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp0s1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:12:34:56 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

    We can see the name of the network device is enp0s1.

  2. Get the IP address.

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    $ ip route

default via 192.168.105.1 dev enp0s1 proto dhcp src 192.168.105.2 metric 100
192.168.105.0/24 dev enp0s1 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.105.2 metric 100
192.168.105.1 dev enp0s1 proto dhcp scope link src 192.168.105.2 metric 100

    We can see the IP address is 192.168.105.2.

  3. Log into the server

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    ssh 192.168.105.2